Why I Am Trying iOS After 11 Years of Android

I was an early adopter of Android. I pre-ordered the second-generation Android phone, HTC Magic, mid-2009. I have long been pro-Android, anti-iPhone/iOS. For a few years, I even taught Community Ed classes on Android and deciding if you need a smartphone. I have never purchased any Apple product of any kind for myself. So why did I just pre-order an iPhone 12? 

Cost

The most I have ever paid for an Android phone is $450. That was for my current, 3-year-old Essential PH1. The idea of paying $600 for a phone that might last 2 years or less has always been hard to swallow. When the iPhone X came out, with Apple testing the $1000 price point, I was more sure than ever that I would never own an iPhone. 

But then the next year Apple did quite an about-face. They released the unheralded, under-appreciated iPhone XR for $300 less than the prior year's flagship. And by most measures, the XR was a small but solid upgrade, rather than an "economy model". And finally Apple increased the bottom-tier memory to 64 Gb, which I think (fingers crossed) remains adequate.

Then last year's iPhone 11 really got me thinking. At $700, it was $50 less than the previous years' XR, while again being a modest upgrade. 

The clincher on price is the fact that our carrier, T-Mobile, seems to have established a very reliable pattern of offering very generous trade-ins for even 3-year-old iPhones. $300 the last couple of years. Since my goal is to keep a phone for 3 years, that means, after the initial purchase price of $800, the replacement cost is $500 every 3 years. Not dirt-cheap, but very tolerable, especially if you don't hate the phone the last 9 months.

Battery life

iPhones always had decent battery life, due to Apple's tight control and integration. But for a long time, Apple seemed very satisfied with just being above average. Every generation, instead of improving battery life, they held it constant, choosing instead to make devices ever-thinner. Totally a case of style over substance.

But the XR changed all that. The XR even had slightly better battery life than the pricier XS! I noticed my wife (not the most careful person about obsessively charging her phone) could routinely go all day without worrying about power! 

I have grown very sick of devoting mental cycles to considering the state of my phone's battery. Battery life is definitely a weak spot for the PH1, which in many other ways is a good Android phone. The whole time I've owned it, I keep it on battery saver. Mostly that works okay, but it messes with navigation and things like my Tile bluetooth tracker. Last year's follow-up with the iPhone 11 appears to have cemented Apple as a battery-life standout (though I fear the iPhone 12 may be a small regression, probably blame 5G).

iOS Parity

Areas where Android had a clear lead have finally disappeared or diminished. Such as ability to select default apps for things like browsing, mail, navigation. Also multi-tasking and inter-app communication. 

Screen size and ratio

I was all-in from Day 1 that larger screen sizes are a big win. I had a Samsung Vibrant, which had one of the largest screens at the time (all of 4"). But Apple stubbornly, smugly stuck to small screens, claiming that it was better, because your thumb could cover most of the screen area. Totally a BS post-hoc justification, of which I was (and still am) contemptuous.

Even when iPhone went big, with the iPhone 7 Plus, it still had comically huge bezels, for a very poor screen:body ratio. That was another thing I was into from early days--minimum bezels, most screen for the size. A big part of the reason I got the PH1.

But finally, with the iPhone X, Apple started putting the pieces together. I say started, because for one thing, the iPhone X was too long and thin. And as mentioned before, at $1000, too expensive. But also as mentioned, one year later, they totally fixed those problems with the XR.

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So that takes care of the negatives that till now had kept me very uninterested in the iPhone option. Now on to the positives. 

Hardware

Even at my most anti-iPhone, I envied the hardware. The smooth, fast, performance from full vertical integration. Innovations that almost always "just worked", and usually led the way for the industry (Touch ID, Face ID). Consistently phenomenal cameras and screens. Great waterproofing.

This is in contrast to the highest-end Android OEM, Samsung--king of the gimmicks. Samsung is a great manufacturer, and they have produced some great phones, but they are inconsistent and unpredictable. Many Samsung-originated innovations are features in search of a need.

Tired of one-off problems

The fragmentation of the Android world is a drag. Especially if you are on anything but the Samsung flagship, any problem you have is hard to pin down. Is it your unique phone or configuration? Not that the iOS world is perfect, but if you have a problem, you also likely have lots of company. Meaning that a fix is more likely to be forthcoming, and if not full-on fix, a much better chance of finding a reasonable work-around.

Updates

Apple has long shone in this department, and Android has long lagged. The Google phones have done reasonably well, Samsung is I think getting better, but the lesser OEMs often don't even ship with the latest version, so the one upgrade you get is just to go to the latest version--12 months late.

Apple's one little black mark was that older phones that were nominally supported were sometimes crippled by the upgrade, because they simply lacked the hardware to run the newest iOS well. My impression is that recent iPhones are so damn fast that this is no longer an issue. That is certainly the sentiment in the iPhone 12 reviews--the performance improvement is not noticeable today, but is nice insurance against future upgrades.

Curiosity

I've been all-Android so long, I am curious to see how the other half lives. My impression is the apps are better. Possibly more expensive, but better. 

Overcast (podcast App)

On the subject of apps, as a heavy podcast user, having a great podcast app is important to me. I have tried a few on Android, and they are all fine, but none seem great. iOS has a podcast app, Overcast, that gets rave reviews. I listen to the developer's podcast, and have recommended it to my iPhone-toting friends and family. But I have never actually used it, because it is iOS-only. So I am looking forward to trying Overcast, and saving time with its Smartspeed feature that eliminates silences.

Repairability

The few times I have looked into repairing Android phones, it has been cost-prohibitive. Like a car that has light damage but is nevertheless "totaled". In the case of the PH1, that applies even to replacing the battery. By contrast, iPhones have a pretty good record for cost of basic repairs, such as screen or battery replacement.

Apple TV App Idea: Photo-Sharing

The latest iteration of Apple TV will run iOS and thus apps. There has been a lot of speculation about whether and what will be the "killer apps" for the iTV.  I personally think slideshows and photo-sharing has got to be at the top of the list.

For a decade, since the advent of HDTV in my household, I have been looking for better ways to turn my TV into a photo screensaver. With the Wii, I could use SD cards. That was OK, I would do it for special occasions, but way too inconvenient, on multiple dimensions.

We got HDTV #2 about a year ago, and I have been using Chromecast for the same purpose. That works okay, but it still isn't that good, and totally doesn't lend itself to casual, ad-hoc management on the TV itself.

I'm not even completely sure what feature set I am looking for, but I am sure there is potential. (Whether there is potential to have high enough volume to make money--I have no idea. This might be a good one for Apple to build in.)

Verizon More Expensive Than Ever

The good news: Verizon is following T-Mobile's lead in eliminating the hated 2-year phone contract, with its opaque, bundled handset subsidy pricing. And their pricing scheme is stick-simple--per-Subscriber, no family plans. The bad news: for families, this makes Verizon more expensive than ever.

T-Mobile Basic 1 Gb Plan
$50 for first Subscriber
$30 for second
$10 each for Subscribers 3-10.

Verizon Basic 1 Gb Plan
$50 per Subscriber

So for a family of 4, Tmo is $100, Verizon is $200. For bigger families, or combined families (we have our 5 plus my Mom plus a friend on our Tmo plan), the difference, at the extreme, is $160 vs a whopping $500.

NFC Receipts (Apple Pay)

I've been a bit of an NFC-payments doubter. Not hardcore, but swiping a credit card is not all that hard, so the motivation to uptake is not that high. But if paying by NFC got me an NFC receipt, and that NFC receipt were automatically entered into my Mint.com account, that would be a major value-add.

Location sharing

Almost as soon as I got a smartphone, equipped with Google Latitude opt-in location-sharing (long-since subsumed into Google+), I have believed that smartphone-based location-sharing will eventually have some significant effect on relationships. How could a person conduct an illicit affair, if their partner can track their location? Conversely, how could one explain refusing one's partner's location request?

In the ensuing 4 years, I have been surprised how slow adoption has been. As far as I can tell from my very young adult children, there is little to no location-sharing practiced. Not even that ad-hoc kind, enabled by Glympse. So maybe I am wrong, but I still believe this will slowly but surely come to pass.

There may be an intervening period of location-cheating apps, but then the discovery of one of those by your partner would be highly incriminating.

Removable Batteries Are A Must

I've said it before--removable batteries in mobile devices are a must. The very slight thinness and sleekness benefit provided by a sealed device is so not worth it.

The latest evidence in my personal life--Beth's Galaxy S3 has a bad port (not sure why). No problem, we have a couple of options. One is wireless charging. Just add a $15 Qi adapter--which I actually already did, just for convenience. It fits snugly with the existing, backplate.

Option 2--buy some extra batteries. Dirt cheap--OEM-quality batteries are $10 on Amazon. I got an external charger for all of $3--shipping included (it also has a USB port, nice bonus). So convenient.

If I were a handset manufacturer (are you listening, HTC?), I would suck up the extra $5 bill-of-material cost and bundle the battery charger and a spare battery with every phone, Then I would advertise "double the battery life".

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One of the subtle reasons spare batteries are so useful is the safety blanket factor. They are so small, you don't even notice them in a purse, pocket, backpack or even bike saddlebag. So instead of lugging a heavy external charger, whenever you are concerned about running out of juice, you slip a spare battery in your pocket. 4 times out of 5, you may not even use it, but it is there that one time you need it.

Bitlock: Bluetooth Bike Lock

Bitlock, a Kickstarter project for a Bluetooth-equipped bike lock, looks like it has a lot potential. It is a nice example of one more physical thing that a mobile device can replace. More than once, I have embarked on a local bike errand, only to realize I forgot the key to the lock.

So the obvious number one benefit is--one fewer physical object in life to keep track of. Based on the video, a close second is the effortless proximity unlock. Fishing out one's key, and fiddling with it in the lock, is a bit of a hassle. Instant, effortless proximity unlock (it's not NFC, you don't have to hold your phone against the lock) is a big value-add.[1]

The video goes on to describe more esoteric use cases, mostly variations on ad-hoc bike sharing. While novel and intriguing, I suspect these are, for most people, the features that look cool in the demo, but never get used in real life. That's fine--the two core features are compelling enough.[2]

The Kickstarter price is $99, not bad. U-Locks are pricey, easily $50-70 in the bike shop, so if this works as advertised, for a frequent bike commuter, could be well worth it.

As an aside--if I were an incumbent seller of U-Locks, I would make this a Manhattan project internally. It's kind of amazing that this hasn't already come on the market. Classic example of the adage that innovation comes from startups, not incumbents.

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[1] It looks like they have covered the important exception case of phone unavailable, with provision for a pre-assigned code. Nice touch.

[2] They say a 5-year battery life, and weatherproof. So assuming that is as-advertised, they have those important details covered.

Android Multi-Tasking Button is Over-Rated...

...On tablets, especially, I find it just as easy to press Home-App versus multi-tasking, possibly scroll, then App. On phones it is slightly more useful--because there is a lower chance that the first home screen has the app you need--but only slightly. So is the functionality at all useful? Sure, but I think the legacy implementation of long-press Home button was fine.

I don't want to buy ANYTHING by sending a text

"Android Malware Creeps Into Cellphone Bill". The root cause of this one is easy to diagnose: it's a terrible idea to spend money simply by sending a text.

T-Mobile Marketing vs Verizon

6 years ago, both Tmo and Verizon had big corporate-image ad campaigns. Those are the kind of ads that don't sell a specific product as much as they sell the company. Verizon had their memorable "Verizon network" ads, that trumpeted the reliability of the nationwide Verizon network, and showed an army of technicians prepared to stand behind it. T-Mobile had somewhat goofy commercials explaining their "Faves" feature, which was unique at the time.

6 years later, Verizon is still reaping the rewards of those memorable, well-targeted ads. Of course, it does help that they really do have superior network coverage, if not necessarily superior reliability.

And what of Tmo? Not 2 years later, they abruptly discontinued the Faves program. They still have no consistent corporate them, other than, maybe a vague sense that they are cheaper. The coulda been the Android carrier.

T-Mobile, can you do anything right?

I really want to like T-Mobile. They are low-cost, and relatively less evil than the likes of Verizon when it comes to screwing with their smartphones and doing generally annoying things to their customers. But honestly, they screw up so much. 2 rebates in a row, they gave me the wrong form, I had to call in to get it fixed. A couple of different promos, they told me I wasn't eligible, I had to get the store reps to escalate to convince themselves I was. Then when I got the free Father's Day Data promo, I had to call every single month to get them to give me the credit. Each time, the rep swore up and down they had fixed the problem, but they never did.

Then there was the time I upgraded 2 lines to unlimited minutes, but they put it on the wrong 2 lines, resulting in the classic shock-inducing $2000 phone bill (of course they fixed it, but another call, another story to the CSR). Or screwing with my grandfathered data plan when I upgraded the line...they switched it back when I complained, so now that I think about it, that is probably deliberate corporate evilness (let's see if customer notices), rather than CSR mess-up.

Here's the latest...just received a new Galaxy S3 for Beth. But it takes the new micro-SIM, so I can't just swap her old SIM into this phone. I have to call to activate the SIM they sent. Okay, that's a bit inconvenient, but reasonable and no alternative. I call, get through quickly, rep understands my request, and after the perfunctory attempt to up-sell my data plan, he puts it through. Except...

Except what he did was transfer my line to the new SIM card. Doh! I assume this happened just because my line is primary. He saw that we had a Family Plan, wouldn't it have been a good idea to be sure he know which line to move?!

Okay, so that's annoying, but I figured a call back should solve it. After explaining the situation about 3 times to the polite but somewhat clueless rep, and waiting on hold while she asked her supervisor, they asked if it would be okay if I went to a Tmo retail store to get a free replacement micro SIM. Well actually, no, it's not okay. Of course, that was just CSR-speak for "I can't help you you're gonna have to go pick up that micro-SIM". Not happy.

iPhone 5: More Fetishizing "Build Quality"

John Gruber goes on, and on and on:

Is it worth devoting the first 750 or so words of this piece to the iPhone 5’s surface appeal? I don’t know how else to convey the niceness of this thing. This iPhone 5 review unit is the single nicest object in my possession. I own things that cost and remain worth more (e.g. my car). But I own nothing this nice. It sounds hyperbolic to put it that way, but I offer this observation with no exaggeration.

I think this is absolutely ridiculous. It's just a phone, people.

Data-Only Plans: Wishful Thinking

For all intents and purposes, T-Mobile's $30 Prepaid Plan (no handset subsidy) that provides 5 Gb of data per month *is* a data-only plan. I agree, it is more the exception than the rule at this point, but it definitely is a sign of things to come.
To an extent, though, the idea that a non-voice-user could save a lot of money with a data-only plan may be wishful thinking. The carriers have fixed costs and need a certain ARPU. They are going to try to get it one way or the other.

It is sort of analogous to how everybody wants cable TV stations to be un-bundled. Their reasonsing is that they only use 4 out of 50 channels. If they could just pick the 4 they want, then their monthly bill should plummet (ideally, to 4/50s of its current level). It's not gonna work this way. If it ever comes, it will be something like: (1) channel costs 1/2 of the full-fare, and each additional channel costs another 1/10. So (5) would be break-even.

Oh, and if they do that, most likely the cost of the bundle will go up.

One More Routine Altered by InfoTech

Add to the list of old routines altered by InfoTech: Listening to the news (for me, that is synonmous with "NPR"). This is an example of technology takes away, and technology gives.

Like so many, I did almost all of my NPR-listening in the car. Morning + afternoon commutes, that added up to an hour each weekday. But now I telecommute. Time-in-car is drastically reduced--some days to zero. But streaming allows me to listen even more than before. Basically, when performing any mundane chore--kitchen cleanup, laundry, yardwork--I walk around with my wireless headset and consume the news. Not only do I listen more, I listen better--I get to skip the long hour of  Minnesota news, and all the music stories.

I am actually trying to find a way to donate directly to NPR, and bypass my local station, which I have little use for. (Now if only they would clean up the buggy-as-heck Android app.)

AT&T Exec regrets offering unlimited data? That's Karmic justice.

"My only regret was how we introduced pricing in the beginning, because how did we introduce pricing? Thirty dollars and you get all you can eat," he said in the on-stage interview at the Milken Institute's Global Conference on Wednesday. "And it's a variable cost model. Every additional megabyte you use in this network, I have to invest capital."

I agree with him in principle--there should have been more options than "all you can eat" data. Here's the thing, though--it is the phone company's anti-consumer greed that created that monster in the first place! That was, for all intents and purposes, the only option offered, way back in the pre-iPhone era, when users were only going to consume small portions of data. It was a huge rip-off, but they very intentionally offered no practical alternative. It was either that big $30 commitment, or pay-per-megabyte at about $2 Mb--literally 1000X the unit cost of all-you-can eat. Karmic.

PS--AT&T is at it again. Their entry-level data plan is already 50% more than T-Mobile's, but now they are going to a $20 minimum. For $20, T-Mobile gives you TEN TIMES as much data, with a feature that eliminates overages in favor of throttling down to 2G speeds.

Complexity Is the Enemy

From my Android phone, when I click on a NYT link sent to me via email, I eventually get a "Page Not Found" response. Pretty sure this is what is happening:

1. Clicking link invokes the mobile browser.
2. Mobile browser fires up, proceeds to try to open (standard) NYT site (nyt.com).
3. NYT site sees access is from a mobile devices, and automatically substitutes their mobile site (m.nyt.com).
4. The link is different, so the result is instant linkrot-type breakage.

Something I Wrote 10 Years Ago

Something I wrote 10 years ago, in a comment on the website of usability guru Jakob Nielsen's. Very interesting to look back, and see where I was way off-base (cell phone's only purpose is voice!), and the areas where I was closer to the mark (PDA size about right; battery-life concerns; desirability of minimizing wasted real estate).


Merge PDA and Phone or Keep Separate?


Erik L. Neu writes:

I am a Palm user. I have read any number of columns recently predicting the demise of the Palm/PDA in favor of cell phone internet access. I think this is ridiculous! The form-factor of the Palm, though great for what it does, is already enough of a usability challenge. I make an analogy between the Palm and a laptop. For the most part, the form factor of the laptop was established nearly a decade ago. Rather than getting smaller, they stay the same size, with more power, functionality and screen area being crammed in the same space. I think the Palm size is about right, it fits reasonably comfortably in the pocket. Now we need the useable screen to expand to fill the footprint of the machine.

As for the cell phone, it has one purpose: voice conversations. So smaller is always better. I would never want to take my Palm jogging, but I just might (usually not, but it is conceivable) want to take my cell phone with me on my run. I am amazed at how small they have gotten already. Besides not being usable, cramming PDA features in them will interfere with this design goal.

Longer-term, yes it would be nice if the cell-phone functionality can reside in the PDA. But I don't see this as being desirable with today's technology--it's not that big a hardship to carry two devices, esp. given the shrinking size of the phone. Plus, their battery-life styles are in conflict--people will be forever finding their PDA out of juice after 2 hours of phone conversation! 

Jakob's reply: Completely agree that we need to recapture the entire surface of the Palm Pilot for screen space. One of the things done right on the Pocket PC. 

I tend to prefer a single, converged device that will be both a PDA and a telephone, especially since the PDA will need to connect to the cellular network anyway in order to get live data. However, as you noted, there is also much to be said in favor of separate devices that can be optimized for their individual features.

Never Oversleep Again

I've been using my Andoid phone as my alarm clock.

PROS:

• Nice, mellow, slowly loudening wake-up sound. Much less jarring than the buzzer on my 20-year-old alarm clock.
• Can have multiple named alarms, set in advance. Greatly lessens the chance of forgetting to set your alarm. For those easy-to-forget extra-early Monday meetings--set the alarm on Friday.
• Battery backup, of course!

CONS:

• Hard to snooze
• No visual time-check when you wake up in the middle of the night
• Small reliability risk, relative to tried-and-true alarm clock technology

Smartphones Need Bigger Standard Batteries

I predict that at some point, maybe a couple of years out, very long battery life will "suddenly" become a sought-after feature, more important than the last few millimeters of slimness.

A Spare Battery for Every Smartphone

We have 4 Android phones in the family now, and they are all battery hogs. No surprise there. It usually troubles me the least, since I work from home. But while traveling on vacation, I have found it convenient to have a spare battery (which I lucked into via a warranty return). All of which leads me to propose that every Smartphone should come with a spare battery. Or, better yet, with a spare extended battery.